ONEONTA, NY- Saturday the Williams College
wrestling team traveled to Oneonta State to compete in their final
meet of the season facing rival Wesleyan as well as Oneonta State
and Lycoming. The Eph grapplers were sharp all day and scored three
decisive victories.
In their first match of the day the Ephs faced off against Little
Three rival Wesleyan. 285 pound Tom Foote got the Ephs rolling with
a crucial victory over Dan Conroy, an established conference foe,
Foote won the match 4-2. In the second bout Josh Mattana faced off
against Dan Bloom, the 4th ranked wrestling in the conference.
Mattana has been on fire as of late with nine straight victories
but was unable to defeat Bloom, falling in sudden victory overtime.
Coach DiCenzo saw Mattana’s loss as a teaching tool that will
help springboard him to a strong performance later in the season
saying, "Josh wrestled well today. We know we can make a few
changes in the next two weeks that will put us in a better
situation to beat a strong wrestler like Bloom at the conference
tournament."
The Ephs then won four of their next five bouts decisively. The
match hung in the balance going into the 174 pound match. Junior
George Sullivan faced off against Greg Hurd, the second ranked
wrestler in New England and a returning national qualifier.
Sullivan appeared to be undaunted and put together one of his best
efforts of the year pinning Hurd late in the second period. Coach
DiCenzo was pleased with Sullivan’s effort saying, "George
took advantage of a great opportunity today and continues to
wrestle at a high level. George has all of the tools and is really
doing a nice job getting better every day."
Ryan Malo capped off the Eph victory with the first of his three
pins on the day. He now holds the national lead in pins, regardless
of division, with an astonishing 33.
Williams then faced Lycoming who is the 26th ranked team in the
country. The Ephs were paced by their lightweight wrestlers with
Mattana, Antista, Rittenburg, Paulish, and Breitenstein pushing the
Ephs out to healthy lead early. Corey Paulish in particular was
impressive. Paulish defeated Isaiah Britton who is 22-3 on the
season by a score of 6-4. The Ephs won the match handily by a score
of 27-13. “Lycoming has a great program and great tradition.
This was a nice win for our program.” said Coach DiCenzo. He
went on, “Our team wrestled very well and showed great focus
and determination."
The grapplers cruised through their third and final match of the
day against Oneonta State. Nikola Mirkovic led the Ephs with an 8-5
victory to start the dual. This momentum was carried to the rest of
the squad who scored a number of decisive victories en route to a
33-9 victory.
On the day seven Ephs were undefeated and more importantly the team got three wins improving their season record to 20-3. This is the first the Ephs have ever reached 20 wins and marks an improvement over last year’s impressive 19 win campaign.
Coach DiCenzo was happy but not content with the Ephs' performance
saying, “I was very pleased with the team’s effort over
the weekend. We beat three very good teams, three teams that have
been ranked in the top 30 nationally for most of the season. We had
some big wins but we still left some matches out on the mat that we
could have won.”
Results:
#17 Williams 27, #25 Wesleyan 9
285 – Tom Foote (Wil) dec. Dan Conroy, 4-2 (9-27)
125 – Dan Bloom (Wes) dec. Josh Matana (Wil), 6-4 sv
(3-0)
133 – Cesare Antista (Wil) dec. Maika Nagata (Wes), 3-0
(3-3)
141 – Dylan Rittenburg (Wil) dec. Howard Tobochnik (Wes),
5-0 (3-6)
149 – Corey Paulish (Wil) dec. Vin deLalla (Wes), 8-3
(3-9)
157 – Carl Breitenstein (Wil) dec. David Bachy (Wes), 6-3
(3-12)
165 – Josh Berkovic (Wes) dec. Jon Foster (Wil), 10-6
(6-12)
174 – George Sullivan (Wil) pinned Greg Hurd (Wes), 4:59
(6-18)
184 – Zach Rolfe (Wes) dec. Andrew Gatewood (Wil), 12-5
(9-18)
197 – Ryan Malo (Wil) pinned Dave Amrhein (Wes), 4:13 (9-24)
#17 Williams 27, #26 Lycoming 13
285 – Alex Bause (L) dec. Colin Curzi (W), 12-9 (3-0)
125 – Josh Matana (W) dec. Stephen Hinton (L), 10-4
(3-3)
133 – Cesare Antista (W) maj dec. Andrew Lewis (L), 13-2
(3-7)
141 – Dylan Rittenburg (W) dec. Eric Grecco (L), 3-0
(3-10)
149 – Corey Paulish (W) dec. Isaiah Britton (L), 6-4
(3-13)
157 – Carl Breitenstein (W) dec. Colton Eyer (L), 6-2
(3-16)
165 – Chris Dahlheimer (L) maj dec. Jon Foster (W), 12-0
(7-16)
174 – George Sullivan (W) tech fall Josh Gochnauer (L), 20-2
(7-21)
184 – Troy Hayre (L) pinned Andrew Gatewood (W), 2:00
(13-21)
197 – Ryan Malo (W) pinned Jacob Walls (L), 4:30 (13-27)
#17 Williams 36, Oneonta 9
285 – Nikola Mirkovic (W) dec James Lamonica (O) 8-5
(3-0)
125 – Josh Matana (W) tech fall Jeremy Cuomo (O), 20-5
(8-0)
133 – Cesare Antista (W) pinned Andrew Cabibbo (O), 2:44
(14-0)
141 – Dylan Rittenburg (W) maj dec. Mike Gregg (O), 10-1
(18-0)
149 – Corey Paulish (W) dec. Matt Eberlein (O), 8-6
(21-0)
157 – Carl Breitenstein (W) pinned Frank Provenzano (O),
5:35 (27-0)
165 – Nikita Federov (O) dec. Robert Brackup (W), 7-1
(27-3)
174 – Zeb Levine (W) dec. James Dewey (O), 5-2 (30-3)
184 – Josh Wake (O) pinned Andrew Gatewood (W), 0:17
(30-9)
197 – Ryan Malo (W) pinned Brian Kramer (O) 3:37 (36-9)
Exhibition Matches
285 - Colin Curzi (Williams) Dec. Phil Kitain (Oneonta) 6-2
141 - Martin lorenz (Oneonta) Maj.Dec. Anthony Miceli (W) 12-2
149 - JP Sala (Oneonta) Maj. Dec. Sam Brnikly (W) 9-1
157 - Scott Sanderson (Williams) Pinned Bryant Jiravisitcul
(Wesleyan) in 2:30
133 - Kaison Tanabe (Williams) Pinned Rob Barry (Wesleyan) in
2:48
149 - Nick Scotto (Wesleyan) Maj. Dec. Brian Kim (Williams)
8-0.
174 - Mir Henglin (Williams) pinned Kyle Roosa (Wesleyan) in
:30
133 - Ed Exler (Lycoming) pinned Chris Simmons (Williams) in
1:42
133 - Kaison Tanabe (Williams) Dec. Terrell Nixon (Lycoming)
7-6
165 - Jefferson Thomas (Lycoming) Dec Rob Brackup (Williams)
12-5
174 - Zeb Levine (Williams) Dec. Tyler Cunningham (Lycoming)
6-2
174 - Dave Smith (Lycoming) Dec Kyle Martin (Williams) 10-4
